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There may be no ka-ching for NCR, the troubled cash-register-cum-ATM giant.

A $10 billion deal for NCR would be the largest leveraged buyout so far this year — but it’s looking less and less likely to happen, The Post has learned.

Under pressure from activist shareholders, NCR put itself up for sale and has asked for binding bids by July 8. But with the clock ticking, the company has yet to give potential buyers enough financial information to pull together offers, two sources close to the sale process said.

NCR is also seeking a rich price: It wants $36 per share to achieve a $10 billion deal. NCR shares closed at $33.02 Wednesday, down 2.31 percent.

Private-equity suitors Blackstone and Carlyle, along with Apollo Management and Thoma Bravo, are balking.

“There is not enough financial information to make a binding bid,” said a source close to the deal.

As a result, bankers have been unable to line up financing.

Opaque and aggressive accounting issues have complicated NCR’s valuation as the company has been trying to move into the future of automated pay systems through several acquisitions that haven’t worked out.
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Wall Street analysts estimate NCR has earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, of $1 billion.

Under Federal Reserve guidelines, banks would likely only be able to lend 6.5 times that, or $6.5 billion, leaving private equity buyers to swallow $3.5 billion in equity — a very rich deal that leaves little room for error.

The naysayers believe that it’s much too rich.

Ben Axler of hedge fund Spruce Point Capital, which recently put out a lengthy research report calling NCR a short, estimates the company’s Ebitda is closer to $700 million. If he’s right, that would bring the value of a deal down to about $6 billion, or $22 per share.

The truth may lie somewhere in between, but one thing Axler says can’t be denied.

“Both the banks and the private equity guys need to have full transparency so they can figure out what the true Ebitda is,” he points out.

Lacking that knowledge “severely limits the amount of debt” that can be added to NCR’s balance sheet, Axler said.

S&P’s gives NCR a BB+ junk rating. By adding in pension and other liabilities, the company is already levered five to one, according to the credit agency.

Some think the Duluth, Ga., outfit isn’t serious about selling. As recently as April, NCR Chief Executive Bill Nuti threw cold water on the wisdom of breaking up the company.

Such sales would be “value destructive,” he told analysts during the company’s quarterly earnings call.

Meanwhile, the lone activist on the board of directors — Marcato Capital’s Mick McGuire — may have to recuse himself from the sale process because of his ties to one of the potential buyers, said one big NCR shareholder. Marcato was seeded by Blackstone, which is teaming up with Carlyle in the auction.

“I question whether there will be a sale,” said one source close to the process.